Department of State Awards Scholarship for Critical Language Study

Timothy Bryant (International Studies, ‘13) has been awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study Punjabi in India during the summer of 2013. Bryant focused his international studies on South Asia and the Middle East and earned a minor in Hindi-Urdu.

He is among some 610 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who received a scholarship from the U.S. Department of State’s CLS Program to study one of 13 critical-need foreign languages. Participants will spend seven to ten weeks in intensive language institutes this summer in one of 13 countries to study Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, or Urdu.

The CLS program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. It provides fully-funded, group-based intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences. Participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.